Change Your Life with NLP - Be The Best You Can Be

My Story

I remember coming home from school one day in my last year of school disillusioned. I wasn’t doing great academically at school.

I really wanted to be a sports star though at best I was mediocre in my ability at sport. I was a late developer, physically quite short in stature and very lean. Growing up was quite a lonely experience. My parents had emigrated from Italy to Australia to find work. And being the youngest child and not having other family around us, at times I felt isolated. My parents worked hard in non-skilled jobs for little pay. So money was tight.

It was a few months before leaving school and I had no real idea of what I was going to do.

I noticed my brother reading a book written by motivational speaker, Tony Robbins, and that’s pretty much what my introduction to personal development and NLP was.

I then became interested in all things “personal development”, did many courses, attended loads of workshops and read just about every book going.

I tried my hand at a few courses at college and dropped out; until I finally found something I enjoyed, communication, psychology, NLP.

I started to believe in myself and decided I was going to give a sports career my best shot, and my aim was also to help inspire disadvantaged children.

I tried my hand at many jobs, I remember doing a sales job were I worked endlessly for two weeks and didn’t get paid. Finally I got a bit of a break and got a position working as a mail deliverer for the public service. It wasn’t the best job though it gave me time to train as hard as I could physically. My dream was to play professional football in Europe. I put my head down trained hard and saved enough money to travel to Europe and try my hand at playing pro football.

Along the way I found myself excelling at running with the help of a good coach.

I had travelled to Italy and trialled with a few teams, until my sports career took me to Romania, the UK and the USA. I ended up back in the UK and things were going well. I was working as an athlete with a great conditioning coach. I was studying all things NLP, every course I could find, and many other sports courses, things were going well. I had a part-time job as a personal trainer and was playing a good standard of football and running some amazing sprint times. I had completely turned my life around and was helping other people turn their life around as a coach.

I had moved to London and had a fantastic position working with several footballers from some of the biggest clubs and the who’s who. We trained celebrities, big CEOs, famous people; it was an amazing experience, a big learning curve. I carried on studying and commenced a distance learning course at Loughborough University; life was amazing I was living in London which was buzzing.

I was living the dream; my goal was to participate at the Olympic Games which were going to be held in Sydney where I grew up.

I had flown back to Sydney to visit my family for the first time in a few years, and make inroads into participating at the Olympic Games which were to be held a year later.

The trip was going well, it had been nice to see my family and friends and they were pleased for me. Then one evening I had participated in a football match, after the game I developed a huge headache and aching back which was indescribable. The next morning I had woken up and my head and back ache were getting worse and I collapsed. My sister had taken me to hospital, and they had conducted several tests and scans which were being assessed. No one could get to the bottom of what was wrong. However the head and back aches had eased off and I felt better.

I took it easy for the rest of the trip, rested and headed back to the UK, arriving in Manchester.

I headed back to London and it was not long before the head and back aches appeared again; to the point I was really struggling. I had seen several specialists and still things were inconclusive. I left my position in London and headed to Manchester with my partner at the time and near to family I had in the UK.

Things got progressively worse and I was at the point where I could barely get up a flight of stairs.

My dreams were shattered, I didn’t know what to do, and I could barely stand up. My dreams of the Olympics about a year away were still in my mind.

Though time was running out, I went from being a top-class sports person, to struggling to walk up a flight of stairs. As time went by, I had seen every specialist and goodness knows what else and still no answers. As time progressed I just wanted the world to swallow me up, there were times I would go to sleep and wish not to wake up, my dreams were shattered.

I didn’t know what to do, I was afraid, sad, stunned, I realised how fragile life was, one day you can have it all and one day it can all get taken away.

Everything I had worked for was lost, I didn’t have any answers. I was devastated, all those years training, and the hard work I put in amounted to nothing. Things were not improving.

Then my life changed forever, my partner I was seeing at the time told me she was pregnant. What should have been great news, the best news I ever heard, also raised more fears. Time was going by, I was still getting these excruciating headaches and back pain, which made it hard to stand up sometimes.

It wasn’t just about me, what was I going to do about becoming a parent in the state I was in?

Time passed, my daughter was born and it was the most amazing experience ever. The uncertainty about my future was still there, though whatever my prognosis I was going to make the most of spending time with my daughter. The Olympics came and I would get up in the early hours of the morning and watch it on TV with my daughter.

The pressure had eventually taken its toll, I had split with my partner, I had no job, I was heavily in debt, and had completely lost everything.

Though I achieved a milestone; I managed to walk to the post office which was 100 yards away, and that gave me some hope.

And gradually the walk to the post office became a walk to the local shop; I had changed my philosophy on life.

I was going to go for it, I changed my diet; I went from years earlier as an athlete being careful with what I ate, to eating whatever I liked within reason. Much more relaxed about things I decided it was now or never. I began feeling better, bit by bit, though the impact of those three years in my life would shape my life forever. I realised if there’s anything you want to do, do it while you can, because you never know in life. So I made a pledge to live every day to the fullest and seize every moment.

I gradually got better, to the point I could start getting my life back. I took a job as a part-time teacher, and completed my teacher training course.

I got back into working in football with Bury Football Club’s youth team. It wasn’t the biggest club though it was a start, and carried on studying, and teaching.

I was getting my life back; at that point I made a decision I was going to teach NLP courses though I was going to do things differently. I was going to take the courses to a new level and make them accessible to everyone, after all people who can’t afford the extortionate fees some training companies were and are charging would benefit from learning NLP too.

And one thing I realised when I wasn’t well is I saw right through many of the people I had come across in the field of NLP and personal development; so many people on an ego trip and just in it for money.

I would do things differently, I would make changes. To me it became apparent after all the studies I did, all NLP was was just a set of skills taken from other aspects of psychology, hypnotherapy and other forms of therapy, learning and successful people, and given a label.

I would take things further, though first I had unfinished business. I wanted to succeed to the highest level in my career. Before I began teaching courses, I wanted to be the best I could be and be one of the best, if not the best in the world, not just at teaching – at applying.

I was back in full swing though I had learned a lot and I was determined to make a difference.

So I sat down and wrote my goals and what I wanted my life’s purpose to be.

I went away for a week, and wrote and wrote and wrote.

I was passionate about sport, and helping people, and I felt I was in the right place to do so.

I wanted to reach as many people as I could and I wanted to help as many people as I could, and I felt I could achieve that by means of radio, seminars, conferences, courses and one-to-one work.

My work at Bury was going well, we were producing many talented young players, we drew a lot of attention to what we were doing; how could a club so small be developing so many players? Then, the first team was bottom of the league, by ten points and new management came in. With new management my opportunity came to literally perform a miracle and help the team get off the bottom of the league and stay up. We did it and many other opportunities would come my way; I got involved in working with international teams, and became a specialist at helping teams turn their plight around. I had helped Blackburn Rovers, Accrington Stanley and worked with many other individuals in many other sports.

I was also working with people helping them to overcome fears, phobias, overcoming limiting and negative beliefs. I carried on studying, reading, and interviewing as many people as possible to find out what made some people successful in certain areas where others...